Fabric Friday!

I've been busy writing for the last week (to a deadline) - 10,000 words in the last three days, so it's time for a break!

Time for Fabric Friday!

Recent acquisitions include:

Yardage from Robert Kaufman's 'Valley Of The Kings' series, in the Jewel colourstory.


It's going into a single quilt, I think. I still have to work out the design.

My purchases from the Sydney Quilt And Craft Show last week:


Including a Sunkissed layer cake which I think I'll turn into a nice large quilt top for Spring (when it comes), and some colour-heavy fat quarters. Such lovely colours!

Yardage from Sew Fresh Fabrics:


Just a lot of stuff I liked, including Zesty Zinnias, Flowers from Just Wing It, Spring Street, Mariposa in Swirl, and Dogwood Blossoms...

I started sorting through my batiks this week, trying to work out what and how to use them. And deciding whether I need to buy more of any colour. *coughs*

Most came in FQ bundles which I've finally undone and started sorting by colour:


But I left one group together because I like the colour scheme:


It needs some strong yellows, but I'm thinking this one's going into a quilt that I'll call Hawaii Five-O, after the TV show which is presently making my days happy!

And then I bought a lot of stuff from Fabricworm while they were having a sale (damn you, sales!):

Bundle 1:


Bundle 2:


Bundle 3:


Lots of Silent Cinema in this one. I have plans for it later this year.

Anyway, that's quite a lot of purchasing. Now to see if I can use it!

Disappearing Impe... uh-oh...

My plan for the Disappearing Imperials just went out the window...

Did I say this was going to be easy?

I laid out the fabrics, took another look at the fabrics and went, "Disappearing Nine-Patch will never do for this!" So I went looking for quilt inspiration...and found it in the Yukata By Numbers quilt pattern by Diane Weber. (Big Pic of the Quilt)

It's the panel in the Imperial Collction that's the problem - I want to cut it into smaller chunks, but not put it in a 'window style' frame - not so explicitly.

The Yukata By Numbers pattern would allow me to mix and mingle the various fabrics with each other in blocks and patterns, while still retaining the panel display.
But I really really need a simple quilt right now. So, I guess we're going to skip Mum's Imperial quilt and head for the Hourglass Batiks then. How complicated can that get?

kaleidscope - DONE and DONE!

Ever had a project you just wanted to get finished and out of your hair?

This is that project for me. At least for this year! (So far, anyway!)

TA-DA!!


It's almost certainly the most finicky quilt I've ever made, and I'm still not sure that the fabrics are right for the quilt type itself, but what's done is done and I'm not going to unpick it all!

Out in the sun in the garden:


And another, closer up.


I might do some patching for the back, but the goal right now is more to get it actually quilted - along with the other four quilt tops I've made this year.

Next up is the quilt I'm going to call "Disappearing Imperials" which is a gift for my mum. Because if I don't get it done soon, she may disown me...

Sydney Quilt and Craft Fair 2011

Some gorgeous quilts at the Sydney Quilt And Craft Show 2011!

I took some photos of my favourites - where the tag is clear, I've got the quilt name and who made it, but sometimes the photo was a bit blurry and the tag wasn't easily seen. I've marked these 'unknown' for the moment, but they were made by someone and if you happen to know, please tell me.

Being me, I went for colour and cut over quilting and stitching. However, the quilting and stitching on all these were amazing and really added to the overall look of the quilt.

Unknown

The pastels aren't my thing, but the pattern is simple yet very effective - stars on point. (Ohio stars?)

Waste Not Want Not - Jacky Barton

I love the colours in this one - so vibrant and scrappy! Again, a very simple block but a very stunning look!

Luminous Diamonds - Lorna Haigh

HSTs! The black and white 'background' is wonderfully contrasted with the coloured squares.

5. Old Delhi Snake Charmer by Unknown

This deserved a picture simply because the detail made my jaw drop. I'm not an 'art quilter' but I definitely can appreciate the work that's gone into something like this!

Unknown

As I noted before, I'm usually a colour-and-block kind of quilter. But the quilting on this baby was uh-may-zing! Actually, the quilting on all the quilts in the show were pristine - some very complex and complicated patterns. One had the teeniest tiniest stitches you ever saw...and I don't think they were machine stitched!

7. Loga-Rhythms - Jennifer Ramsey

The programmer/analyst in me is wondering if there's a secondary meaning in the pattern on this quilt - maybe a shorthand mathematical formulae or something? I love anything artsy that has a 'hidden' secondary message in the design.

Summer Sea(?) by Unknown

This was probably the 'simplest' quilt in the show - but very effective. In the centre of each square was quilted a perfect circle. Beautiful! I gotta try this one myself.

Unknown

I can't quilt curves to save my life. but I love this design. Love Love Love Love. It's the sunburst pattern and the reds and blues and yellow-oranges all together that get me. Someday...

9. Kyoto - Jackie Barton

Another very simple but very dramatic quilt. I have a bunch of fabrics from the Robert Kaufman Imperial Collection (one of them) and they're due to be made into a quilt for my mum...I was thinking a disappearing nine-patch, but this could work just as well...

11. What Can You See - Natasha Rutter(?)

Once again, so simple and yet so very effective!

16. Soul Searching - Kathy Doughty and Katie Cox

Jelly rolls in black-and-white, and in colours. Another colour contrast one. And the quilting of this was all these lovely swirls which you can just see in the close-up pic.

15. Pinwheel Scrapyard - Judith Thompson(?)

I gotta try this.

29. Convenient Butterfly at the cabin - Jane Griffiths(?)

It's a postage-stamp quilt of sorts! Each block is strip-pieced, nine-square. Looks really good and I love the gradated shading. Another one to try with my voluminous stock of jelly rolls...

23. Behind the Hedge - Marina Dharmides (?)

This quilt got me because it was still made up of squares - but the flowers were designed around and in and through the squares. Art-quilting within blocks...it's just amazing. And I loved the overall floral pattern.

As for me, I came out of the quilt show with more stash. More pics on that later, perhaps?

WIP Wednesday - nearly there!

So close, I can taste it!

It actually looks kinda okay.

The borders (outside the dark line) are just laid out right now, not sewn on:





It still seems awfully busy, and the seams are horrible when viewed up close. But the overall pattern is pretty good, I think!

I'm going to try to finish this on Friday. It's been lingering so long that it's become a millstone around my neck and I want it gone and done!

DONE IS THE ENGINE OF MORE.

And once it is...

I'm thinking that I need some very simple projects for a while. Super-simple and easy, after the nightmare complexity of the kaleidoscope quilt.

So, forthwith are my ideas for the next three quilts (not counting the kaleidoscope quilt-along that I'll be doing with Don't Call Me Betsy):

1. hourglass blocks in purple-green-black batiks
2. disappearing nine-patch with Robert Kaufman's Imperial Collection
3. Mountain Majesty in Harvest fabrics

Very very simple, chain-piecing, easy-to-assemble-and-sew quilts.

A good idea right now since I'm burned out on the complicated after Supernova and Kaleidoscope.

WIP Weekly, fabric purchases, and colour choices

To start with: WIP Weekly





The pic's rotated itself through 90degrees, thanks to Flickr - I think it was too wide for Flickr's parameters, so it turned it over.

But the circles and diamonds are very clear now, although I still think the fabric choices are too busy for the kaleidoscope pattern. My bad. And, uh, almost nothing meets at a point. *coughs*inexact seaming again*coughs*

I am not the most precise quilter - how y'all manage such exacting points and precision I don't know but I really admire! People say that it helps to starch your fabrics to keep them in shape...I'm definitely considering that.

Then again, it might just be me...

I kinda rewarded myself for some (non-quilting) work done with a spending spree at Sew Fresh Fabrics...

I bought about, oh, eight yards of various fabrics. Mostly stash-builders, because I looked through my fabrics and I have a lot of pre-cuts, but not quite as much yardage as I'd like (except in batiks, where I have a whole box full of batiks...I love batiks).

A handful of the fabrics I picked:



Nice punchy colours to add to my stash. I need more bold colours. And some blender fabrics. But that's for later perhaps.

This week was a week for spending:

I also bought a full yard of each fabric in Kaufman's Valley Of The Kings Jewel Colourstory. Hopefully I can put it together in a way that does the fabric justice!



Finally, here's the fabric choices for the Kaleidoscope Quilt-Along at Don't Call Me Betsy:



After the craziness of the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope, I'm going for something a lot more visually stable. A white almost-solid, a leafy autumn pattern, and a bunch of strong colour accents:



I'm hoping it'll produce a quilt with some good movement, but also a nice stable pattern that doesn't give people migranes.

WIP Wednesday!

1. Sanctuary Kaleidoscope

Just before I left - the very day I left, in fact - I sewed up the last octagons for the Sanctuary Kaleidoscope and took a photo which I never had the opportunity to post.



I was pretty pleased with it.

Then I had to pack everything up and put it away so my sisters wouldn't mess it up while I was in Europe.

Now that I'm back, priority #1 is to get this baby finished.

Now that I have the quares blocked it, it's easier to see the finished product:



Excuse the blurriness. I took it on my camera phone which isn't an iPhone and so the pic didn't turn out too well. Apparently I have three cameras and not a single battery charger between them. Go figure...

I wish I'd put another 'circle' in the top right corner of the quilt to balance things out, but...I didn't. And it's a little late now to be adjusting.

It's busier than I like, but pretty striking, I think. Next time I make a kaleidoscope, I don't think I'll use such bright, patterned fabrics.

--

2. Supernova Quilt Along

I wasn't able to get my Supernova Quilt done for the quilt-along, but I did get the top finished!



I offered it to the stepbrother for his upcoming wedding in Jan, and he didn't mind it but wasn't sold on it. He and his fiancee think I should surprise them...

Hm...

3. Other WIPs
Binding:
- 3 quilts
- 2 table runners

Binding is clearly my nemesis...

we're back!

So, after losing my job, going on holiday, and having my cat die while I was away... I am unemployed, home, and catless.

I think the worst part about coming home is the loss of the cat. Because my life used to side-step around her, and now I side-step...but there's no reason to do so. That's the 2nd hardest part of missing her. The hardest part is wanting to cuddle her and pet her and listen to her purr...

*sniffles a little*

In quilting news, while I was on holiday, I took a bag full of HST's to hand-sew...and didn't touch them once! Oops.

Now that I'm back, the UFOs are still circling my lounge room. I have three wedding quilts to bind, two Christmas table runners, and that damned Sanctuary Kaleidoscope, which is kicking my ass something horrendous.

I have three more weddings to make quilts for (stepbrother, hockey friend #1, hockey friend #2).

And I've decided to join in with the quilt-along at Don't Call Me Betsy...for another Kaleidoscope Quilt. EEP!





I'll learn my lesson this time and go with fabrics that are much much less busy...

And, in a possibly fatal move, I'm going to a fabric warehouse with a friend tomorrow morning. She says she's a fabric enabler. I think I'm a perfectly good enabler all on my own, but we'll see...